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CART: A season review of the 1999 FedEx Championship Series

By Benjamin Kuhl

HOUSTON, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 26: Player's Forsythe Racing driver Greg Moore of Canada drives his Mercedes Reynard during the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston, part of the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) Fed Ex Championship Series, at the Houston Grand Prix Circuit in Houston, Texas on September 26, 1999. (Photo by David Taylor /Getty Images).
HOUSTON, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 26: Player's Forsythe Racing driver Greg Moore of Canada drives his Mercedes Reynard during the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston, part of the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) Fed Ex Championship Series, at the Houston Grand Prix Circuit in Houston, Texas on September 26, 1999. (Photo by David Taylor /Getty Images). /
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In 1999, the CART FedEx Championship series expanded to a 20-race schedule. Newcomer Juan Pablo Montoya made a strong first-year impact.

Continuing to build off the success of big tires, high horsepower and a star-studded cast of drivers, the 1999 CART FedEx Championship season brought exciting highs of first-time race winners and lows of lives lost in the unending pursuit of speed.

Let’s take a look back at the 1999 season of CART competition that saw a young Juan Pablo Montoya take a massive step into the open-wheel racing big leagues with a very impressive campaign with Chip Ganassi Racing.

The schedule

The 1999 CART FedEx Championship Series traveled to 20 circuits in total, with five tracks being located outside the United States (two in Canada, one in Australia, one in Brazil and one in Japan). The addition for the 1999 CART season was the 13th race on the schedule, which took place on Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan.

The 1999 race schedule was as follows.

Round – Race Name – Location – Winner
1 – Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami – Homestead, Florida – Greg Moore
2 – Firestone Firehawk 500 – Motegi, Japan – Adrian Fernandez
3 – Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – Long Beach, California – Juan Pablo Montoya
4 – Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix – Nazareth, Pennsylvania – Juan Pablo Montoya
5 – Grand Prix Rio Telemar Rio 200 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Juan Pablo Montoya
6 – Motorola 300 – Madison, Illinois – Michael Andretti
7 – Miller Lite 225 – West Allis, Wisconsin – Paul Tracy
8 – Budweiser/G.I. Joe’s 200 – Portland, Oregon – Gil de Ferran
9 – Medic Drug Grand Prix of Cleveland – Cleveland, Ohio – Juan Pablo Montoya
10 – Texaco/Havoline 200 – Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin – Christian Fittipaldi
11 – Molson Indy Toronto – Toronto, Ontario – Dario Franchitti
12 – U.S. 500 – Brooklyn, Michigan – Tony Kanaan
13 – Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix – Detroit, Michigan – Dario Franchitti
14 – Miller Lite 200 – Lexington, Ohio – Juan Pablo Montoya
15 – Target Grand Prix of Chicago – Chicago, Illinois – Juan Pablo Montoya
16 – Molson Indy Vancouver – Vancouver, British Columbia – Juan Pablo Montoya
17 – Honda Grand Prix of Monterey – Monterey California – Bryan Herta
18 – Texaco Grand Prix of Houston – Houston, Texas – Paul Tracy
19 – Honda Indy 300 – Surfers Paradise, Australia – Dario Franchitti
20 – Marlboro 500 – Fontana, California – Adrian Fernandez

Notes from the season

  • Juan Pablo Montoya moved up from F3000 into CART, landing with the incredibly successful Chip Ganassi Racing. In his first year of CART competition, he won the drivers’ championship and Rookie of the Year. At this time, the last person to win a drivers’ championship and Rookie of the Year in open-wheel racing was Nigel Mansell in 1993.
  • Montoya and Dario Franchitti tied at 212 points at the end of the season. Montoya was rewarded the championship due to his seven race wins compared to Franchitti’s three.
  • Gonzalo Rodriguez perished while qualifying at Laguna Seca Raceway. Rodriguez launched over a tire wall while navigating the corkscrew and landed upside down. He was 27 years old.
  • Greg Moore perished in the final race of the 1999 season at Fontana, California when his Forsythe Racing Reynard 99i contacted the wall and tumbled. He was 24 years old.
  • Reynard with their 98i and 99i chassis earned 424 Constructors’ Cup points, beating out Swift with their 010.c chassis, which earned 241 Constructors’ Cup points.
  • Honda beat out Ford to win the Manufacturers’ Cup by earning 383 points compared to Ford’s 301.

The results

In his first season of CART competition, Juan Pablo Montoya was truly dominant. The young Colombian qualified on pole seven times, claimed the fastest lap in six races and ended the season with seven race wins. He struggled at some points with consistency, but he was saved in the end by his win total on his way to scoring 212 points.

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Dario Franchitti scored the same number of points as Montoya, but he only won three races. While Montoya was making famous his all-or-nothing driving style, Franchitti was further developing a consistent driving style. Franchitti earned three race wins and a further eight podium finishes, all in a 20-race season.

While today we recognize Team Penske and Chip Gannasi Racing being two Goliath teams in the current IndyCar series, things were different in 1999. Chip Ganassi Racing dominated, as their driver lineup always featured the fastest open-wheel drivers available at the time. In contrast, Team Penske struggled with an overweight Lola T9900 and later a Penske-designed PC-27B-99 that was downright tragic and yielded no significant results.

The tire competition between Firestone and Goodyear still continued with mixed results. A string of tire failures was beginning to raise a question to the idea of multiple tire suppliers battling for a stickier tire at the cost of stability.

Slowly over time, Chip Ganassi Racing began to feel more pressure from Team Penske, Team KOOL Green and Forsythe Racing, but as it stood, they were the team to beat.

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The cross competition that CART provided, including five different chassis suppliers, four various engine suppliers and choice of tire, was still its staple attractor. Would another team be able to challenge Chip Ganassi Racing as CART entered the 2000s?